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This is the story of Cuban tobacco, whose agricultural and industrial development was fashioned as deftly as a Havana cigar around overseas trading interests. It traces the nineteenth-century growth of a strong tobacco oligarchy, peasant grower class and urban salaried work force, alongside slave and indentured labour, and examines how a prestigious manufacturing country was transformed into an exporter of leaf. Visibly poor peasant agriculture concealed foreign and home capital which, while creating some large plantations, used and even propagated a most extreme form of sharecropping. Well into the twentieth century, an increasingly embattled industry catered to dwindling luxurymarkets and an unstable, fluctuating home market with but a few relatively large, on the whole family, concerns and a proliferation of small sweatshop and outwork production.

A new edition of the best-selling, award-winning first book.When the Beltrán brothers came to this Andean valley, they found behind barred windows beautiful twin sisters – last in the line of an illustrious conquistador. Through them the Beltrán dynasty was born – a dynasty that ruled the valley for 200 years and was now returning to the dust.Two centuries later, Lydia Sinclair was scarcely out of school when she fell in love with Don Diego Beltrán and left England behind for her husband’s Andean estate. Benito, the family’s oldest retainer, said that through her the valley would not be forgotten: 'Fate has brought you here to us, to chronicle our decline.'In the night's stillness he told her of romance and battle, drought and pestilence, splendour and suffering.The characters in the valley's tumultuous history rose up before Lydia as if they still roamed the dusty slopes: Admiral Silence who enjoyed no one's company so decided never to speak again; General Mario who prophesied the ruin of their valley as he decayed from leprosy behind a mask; María Candelaria whose beauty and wildness caused the massacre of nearly half of the Beltráns; La Comadre Matilide, the peasant woman of striking ugliness whom people bribed to stay in their houses because her departure left a sense of ill omen; the aged sisters who sat amidst hoards of china and gambled at cards for their every move. Finally there was Cristóbal Beltrán, who sifted the sand in the hourglass, ageless and all-knowing and indestructable.Out of the upheaval and decay come a narrative and language astonishing in their fertility. This new edition accompanies the publication of Lisa’s new memoir, Better Broken Than New.

A new edition of the best-selling, award-winning second book.To Lizaveta, César remained as much of an enigma after two years of their nomadic exile together as he had that first day in Clapham when he took up his peculiar vigil in her mother’s kitchen and showed no signs of shifting out of her life, ever. ‘South America,’ this total stranger had pronounced unaccountably and then had fallen silent until hours later when Lisaveta decided to introduce herself. in response to her name he replied, 'No'.'What do you mean "No"?' she demanded, but was to remain in the dark on this, as on other vital questions: such as why César’s friends Otto and Elías were on the run and from whom, why she was expected to carry guns on a holiday to Paris, and why there was so thick an atmosphere of mystery about everything when she couldn’t pinpoint the danger. Through her 16-year-old eyes she saw 35-year-old César as old and slightly debauched but strikingly beautiful. His air of dissipated grandeur seemed to disarm almost everyone and she marvelled how even in London he was treated like some kind of protected species or listed building. ‘My friends are waiting for a bullet,’ Cesar told her, 'they don’t shoot people like me'.From London the now indivisible foursome drift southwards from Paris to Milan and back – stopping in Bologna, Grenoble, and Venice – wherever the slow train takes them. They live like divine fugitives, resplendent in silks and Mercedes one month, warding off starvation the next. The danger for Otto and Elías is constant and palpable. For all of them, tension circumscribes an almost flamboyant kind of lassitude.This new edition accompanies the publication of Lisa’s new memoir, Better Broken Than New.

A new edition of the best-selling fourth novel.It all appears innocent enough: a handsome couple in their thirties – she an actress, he a successful graphic designer – revisiting Sestri Levante on the Italian Riviera where they once spent their honeymoon. But it is not at all innocent. The couple have been driven here by paranoia – by a slow dread of what will happen to the two of them and to their daughters if anyone finds out about their baby Amadeo, whose identity, and even whose existence, is at the heart of the schizophrenic illness from which Rosalind has long suffered. Two people hiding the world from each other, Rosalind and William cannot escape the chilling truth that lies at the centre of Lisa St Aubin de Terán's compelling novel.The resort of Sestri Levante has twin, Janus-facing bays: one which Hans Christian Andersen called the Bay of Fairytales and another which the local people have long called the Bay of Silence. It is to the Bay of Silence that Rosalind now retraces her steps – to the spot where she first encountered the exotic golden stranger Angelo who was to play such a seductive and haunting role on her honeymoon and in her marriage. Both she and her husband independently try to make sense of the tragic events which have engulfed their lives. They each try to analyse the pressure placed on their marriage – which has allowed distressing events to be forgotten and self-delusion to herald the unthinkable.In her fourth novel, Lisa St Aubin de Terán creates an atmosphere which is profoundly unsettling. She weaves an escalating story of tension and human drama, combining the depth of character analysis which was so admired in The Tiger, with a striking new sense of pace and menace.Lisa St Aubin de Terán is the prize-winning Anglo-Guyanese London-born author of 20 books, including novels, short stories and nonfiction. Much of her writing draws on her varied life experiences. And time warps, rural communities, isolation and grace under pressure are still the dominant themes in both her life and work.

When police pay a visit to an elderly peeping tom, they unexpectedly stumble upon a loose thread that leads detective John Custer into a murky world of sex crimes and serial killings, of hidden graves and socially impeccable paedophiles. Ignoring the scepticism of his colleagues and superiors, Custer doggedly follows his intuition that there really is something very wrong that needs to be discovered, however cold the trail seems to have become.Inspired by some of the many paedophile conspiracies that have been uncovered in recent years, and the cases of abused children, The Hobby is a psychological crime thriller, ranging from the fan club of a 1940s child star, through Istanbul and war-torn Burma and Cairo, to 1980s Britain. Custer and his assistant, Sergeant Jolly Campbell, seek to bring justice to the forgotten victims, while themselves going through their own quest for personal redemption.

A dark psychological police procedural in the tradition of P. D. James and Tana French. When a routine police visit to investigate a peeping-tom complaint uncovers the first thread of a hidden network of abuse and murder, Detective John Custer becomes determined to pursue crimes that others would rather leave buried - even as the narrative enters the minds of those responsible.When London police pay a visit to what appears to be nothing more than an elderly peeping tom, they unexpectedly stumble upon a loose thread that leads Detective John Custer into a dismal world of sex crimes, hidden graves and powerful and respected paedophiles. Ignoring the scepticism of his colleagues and superiors, Custer stubbornly follows his intuition to unravel the web of crimes gone cold.Inspired by recent revelations of elite paedophile networks and cases of child abuse, The Hobby is a psychologically layered police procedural that follows Custer and his assistant, Sergeant Jolly Campbell, as they discover a network of crimes. Moving beyond the investigation itself, the narrative also enters the minds of the perpetrators, revealing the disturbing logic and hidden histories behind their crimes. From the fan club of a 1940s child star, through Istanbul, war-torn Burma and Cairo,and back to 1980s Britain, Custer and Campbell seek to bring justice tolong-forgotten victims while vying for their own personal redemption."The author has an enviable narrative gift, and there is something magical about her deployment of it." -- The Guardian, on Lisa St Aubin de TeranA tense and disturbing psychological crime novel likely to appeal to readers of writers such as P. D. James, Ian Rankin, Elizabeth George, Tana French, Kate Atkinson and Alan Parks.

The Hacienda is an extraordinary memoir from prize-winning novelist, Lisa St Aubin de Terán. At the age of seventeen she followed her husband, South American aristocrat and bank robber Don Jaime Terán, to his hacienda, deep in the Venezuelan Andes. Once there, Jaime virtually left his new bride to fend for herself on the vast sugar-cane and avocado plantation. The Hacienda tells the fascinating story of how, from half starving on a diet of mangoes and guavas and with two pedigree beagles, a pet vulture and one peasant girl for company, Lisa St Aubin de Terán became la Doña – managing the estate, bearing her first child, handling her increasingly unstable husband, and living for seven years amongst la gente, an illiterate, feudal people who she says “have been the greatest influence on my life and work.”“Over and over again before I ever went there, I heard the name ‘La Hacienda’. It was a place where sugar-cane grew in unimaginable abundance and avocado pears that dwarfed all others… When I asked where it was, I was told it was in the Andes, never anywhere specific, just en los Andes… when I asked how big it was, the answer was that it stretched as far as the eye could see and then further… Everything else I was told thereafter was woven in a tapestry of myth and history. Characters from the past were discussed and criticised with the same familiarity as the cousins who had just left the breakfast table. Time, it seemed, had warped on the hacienda and spun its web over all its sons and daughters. It spun its web over me.”

Jean Stubbs has published widely on Cuba, with a specialist interest in tobacco, class, race, gender, nation and migration. In 1985 she established her place as a pre-eminent historian of Cuban tobacco with the publication of Tobacco on the Periphery (a new expanded edition of which was published by Amaurea Press in 2023). Her foundational work on Cuban tobacco, and especially the Havana cigar, led her to trace cultivation, trade, manufacture, labour and consumption on a regional and global scale, linking commodity and migration histories, drawing on sociological, anthropological and agronomic approaches, as well as archival and oral history. Now for the first time, her extensive writings have been collected into a single volume, containing 19 of her tobacco-related articles published between 1982 and 2024.

In this photographic collection, seven photographers who have built their artistic reputation documenting Cuban jazz over the years, bring together images celebrating the musicians who have performed at Jazz Plaza – Havana’s annual international jazz festival.These photographers present very personal, subjective views on the jazz performances that they document. The images themselves becoming silent participants in the events they show, demonstrating that without photography, jazz would not be the same.

Jean Stubbs has published widely on Cuba, with a specialist interest in tobacco, class, race, gender, nation and migration. In 1985 she established her place as a pre-eminent historian of Cuban tobacco with the publication of Tobacco on the Periphery (a new expanded edition of which was published by Amaurea Press in 2023). Her foundational work on Cuban tobacco, and especially the Havana cigar, led her to trace cultivation, trade, manufacture, labour and consumption on a regional and global scale, linking commodity and migration histories, drawing on sociological, anthropological and agronomic approaches, as well as archival and oral history. Now for the first time, her extensive writings have been collected into a single volume, containing 19 of her tobacco-related articles published between 1982 and 2024.

As a boy, Richard went to live in Ghana where he danced with his parents and their friends to Highlife music, the foundation of Afrobeat. This experience set the tone and tenor for the rest of his life. A life in which music, poetry, literature, theatre, art, travel, nature and love entwine. Performing at the Edinburgh Festival, he met Lauren, who became his soulmate. His story weaves their enduring romance through a life that brought them adventures in many parts of the world: Thailand, Nigeria, India, Brazil, Cyprus, Greece. On the Peloponnese coast by a turtle beach, they create the perfect place to live out the rest of their lives together. But their dream is prematurely cut short. Both irreverent and moving, this is a story that will inspire the reader to value each day as a unique adventure and experience.

With an Introduction by Dr Kit Heyam, author of Before We Were Trans: A New History of GenderIn a Cairo clinic, Ronny recovers from gender-affirming surgery. Her grandmother, mother and then Ronny herself sift through their pasts in search of what has led to this radical self-transformation. From decades of Home Counties respectability emerge buried family secrets – of hidden love, thwarted hopes and desires, stifled by conformity and the bonds of duty from which Ronny has broken free. First published in 1989, A Curious Child is innovative for being written from the perspective of a transgender person and her family. Amaurea Press is very happy to be bringing this back into print.

Winner English PEN Translates Award 2025In Anima Fatua, Anna Lidia Vega Serova draws on her own experiences of growing up in the late Soviet Union to craft a deeply unsettling coming-of-age novel. In the wake of her parent’s divorce, Alia (the novel’s beguiling protagonist) is forced to negotiated her linguistic, racial and sexual otherness amid the maelstrom of perestroika. Despite the many horrors to which she is exposed, largely at the hands of the novel’s grim menagerie of male characters, Alia exerts her own agency at every turn. More antihero than tragic victim, Alia responds in kind to the cruelty around her. She confounds and enthrals as she leads us on a harrowing journey through a country on the brink.Originally published in Spanish to much acclaim in 2008, it has now been translated for the first time into English by Robin Munby – and has been awarded an English PEN Translates award. This is a story full of emotional intensity and dark humour, which in particular will appeal to readers of Margarita García Robayo, Ludmilla Petrushevskaya or Sayaka Murata, looking to delve back into world of complex, charismatic women.